1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to content usage analytics for digital content and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for preserving analytics while processing digital content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Content analytics provides authors and publishers of digital content valuable usage-related information. Analytics track one or more events related to digital content usage, such as tracking the number of times an object is accessed. The object may include, without limitation, web pages (entire page and portions thereof), hyperlinks, buttons, images, form fields and the like. Analytics may also include tracking the time that is spent on a portion of the digital content, scroll movements, and the like. A listing of the events that are to be tracked are stored in metadata associated with the digital content. Information generated by tracking such events is called usage data or analytics data, which may be sent to a web analytics server for further analysis and/or reporting, thereby providing valuable information to the author or publisher which can be used for improving the digital content.
However, once analytics enabled digital content is published or otherwise distributed, it is often processed so as to become modified by a user. The user processing may convert the digital content to a new format and then distribute the converted digital content. The conversion is no longer under the control of the author. The conversion results in a loss of analytics tracking. Similarly, if a portion of the digital content is copied to a new file, the analytics tracking is lost. Hence, an author is unable to accurately track usage of such user processed digital content. Similar issues arise when the processing comprises merging or splitting analytics enabled digital content into a single or multiple files.
Currently, in order to preserve analytics during processing, the author or publisher needs to manually identify events to be tracked in the modified digital content. With the rendering of digital content by different document formats and editing by different applications, manually adding analytics functionality to multiple documents is tedious. Furthermore, because each format saves and handles the analytics related metadata differently, manually adding analytics functionality is also complex. If a large number of events/actions are to be tracked, manually adding analytics capability is cumbersome and prone to human error. Due to these limitations, authors or publishers suffer from loss of valuable information related to analytics on the usage of digital content.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for preserving analytics while processing digital content.